Most of us have seen the Facebook viral post; 'Post Ten Albums That Have Stayed With You - No Explanation Needed', but what about the albums that didn't do it for you; could you explain that? We're not talking about Susan Boyle, or the likes of the almost universally-hated 'St.Anger', but the albums that simply didn't rock your world. Over the coming days, we're counting down ten such discs, starting with this one from AC/DC.
By Eamon O'Neill.
Since first hearing ‘High Voltage’ at the age of 6, I had been hooked as an AC/DC fan. The first album that I ever owned was their then-current ‘Fly On The Wall’, and despite it’s now obvious flaws, I loved it, along with follow-up proper ‘Blow Up Your Video’. At 13 however, things were about to change. I was a little older, less naive, and now at secondary school, reading about the forthcoming AC/DC album, something was missing. I just wasn’t elated for this release, in fact; I was completely apathetic before I'd even heard a note.
‘Thunderstruck’, was the first song I heard off the album. The first single released, it was a fantastic opener to a new era of the band, and remains a rightful AC/DC classic. But its follow-up ‘Moneytalks’ was infinitely less so, despite my trying desperately to love it. ‘Are You Ready’, which came next, was better, and my band even used it as an opener for a time (as we also did with ‘Thunderstruck’). Yet, something still wasn’t right for me. I just couldn’t connect to ‘The Razor’s Edge’, despite it containing a lost gem in its title track. The sound of the album was too polished, the cover was awful, Brian Johnson was no longer part of the writing team, and there was a new, aesthetically-unpleasing band line-up; I just didn’t ‘get’ it like I had their other releases.
This attitude led me to make one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made when it comes to gig-going, when I even shrugged at the chance to go and see AC/DC for the first time when they played in Belfast in 1991. It was only in the days leading up to the gig that I hurriedly changed my mind, but with the band reaching heights of popularity unseen for a decade, it was too late. I even phoned around every ticket seller in the book on the day of the show, but to no avail.
There are worse AC/DC albums than this, and there are less successful ones, but no other AC/DC release contains a track as dire as ‘Mistress For Christmas’, and to this day I still glare at this album with suspicion, despite owning no less than four different copies of it.
Perhaps it was the passing of childhood into adolescence that prompted my irreverence, or maybe it was the fact that the band had exploded into the mainstream, but for whatever reason, 'The Razor's Edge' for me, remains cold.
Click for #2 and #3 of the Albums That Didn't Rock My World.
Like this story? Like us on FaceBook and follow us on Twitter for regular updates & more of the same.
Since first hearing ‘High Voltage’ at the age of 6, I had been hooked as an AC/DC fan. The first album that I ever owned was their then-current ‘Fly On The Wall’, and despite it’s now obvious flaws, I loved it, along with follow-up proper ‘Blow Up Your Video’. At 13 however, things were about to change. I was a little older, less naive, and now at secondary school, reading about the forthcoming AC/DC album, something was missing. I just wasn’t elated for this release, in fact; I was completely apathetic before I'd even heard a note.
‘Thunderstruck’, was the first song I heard off the album. The first single released, it was a fantastic opener to a new era of the band, and remains a rightful AC/DC classic. But its follow-up ‘Moneytalks’ was infinitely less so, despite my trying desperately to love it. ‘Are You Ready’, which came next, was better, and my band even used it as an opener for a time (as we also did with ‘Thunderstruck’). Yet, something still wasn’t right for me. I just couldn’t connect to ‘The Razor’s Edge’, despite it containing a lost gem in its title track. The sound of the album was too polished, the cover was awful, Brian Johnson was no longer part of the writing team, and there was a new, aesthetically-unpleasing band line-up; I just didn’t ‘get’ it like I had their other releases.
This attitude led me to make one of the biggest mistakes I’ve ever made when it comes to gig-going, when I even shrugged at the chance to go and see AC/DC for the first time when they played in Belfast in 1991. It was only in the days leading up to the gig that I hurriedly changed my mind, but with the band reaching heights of popularity unseen for a decade, it was too late. I even phoned around every ticket seller in the book on the day of the show, but to no avail.
There are worse AC/DC albums than this, and there are less successful ones, but no other AC/DC release contains a track as dire as ‘Mistress For Christmas’, and to this day I still glare at this album with suspicion, despite owning no less than four different copies of it.
Perhaps it was the passing of childhood into adolescence that prompted my irreverence, or maybe it was the fact that the band had exploded into the mainstream, but for whatever reason, 'The Razor's Edge' for me, remains cold.
Click for #2 and #3 of the Albums That Didn't Rock My World.
Like this story? Like us on FaceBook and follow us on Twitter for regular updates & more of the same.
